Well, what is written on CNN isn't the full quote either. Here's the full quote:
"I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky."
He does seem to discriminate here, that aborting every black baby in the country would reduce crime. Also, given what we know about his literary past, writing books about morals, moral support for the war on terrorism, etc.. And how he has not acknowledged that he believes that aborting black babies to reduce crime would be racist, but rather acknowledged that abortion for the purpose of reducing crime is immoral. I believe that people would definitely be justified in their belief that this guy is racist.
Where he stated that abortion for the purpose of lowering crime was a no-no. But I haven't seen any evidence that he does not agree that crime is linked to race, which is what he seems to be being accused of.
"Responding later to criticism, Bennett said his comments had been mischaracterized and that his point was that the idea of supporting abortion to reduce crime was "morally reprehensible.""
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050930/ap_ ... nnett_race